Sunday, January 16, 2011

BCG done; PD asked us to feed her as much as possible

However, there is still an unsolved problem, that her weight is progressing at a decreasing rate. She was doing fine when she was on breast milk, but ever since we switched to milk powder, she was not gaining as much weight as before, and now she is at the edge of underweight for her age.

The pediatrician (PD) suspected that she was allergy to the glucose protein, she suggested us to have a blood test. It was an horrible experience, Aelig was not one year old yet, and it had to be done early in the morning before she eats anything. So, both hubby and a worker in the lab hold her arm tied, another worker took her blood (8 samples!) and me trying to comfort her but failed as she was looking at me with eyes full of tears and kept yelling as if why I let all these happen to her. The result came, there was no sign of allergy, what a relief!

While waiting for the result, we followed the PD's instruction to change the milk. She didn't like it so didn't drink as much, resulting in her losing weight.

The PD was trying to find an explanation, now she wanted us to feed her as much as possible to make sure that she could gain weight normally. It was insane, in the health book it was clearly described that we should limit / delay any intake of chocolate and sugar, but the PD asked us to give her chocolate cream. Aelig loved it instantly and ate the entire 125g, but later her stool was chocolate cream alike and smelt very very bad. We got scared so we stopped.

I do not grow up eating chocolate cream nor those sweet stuffs for 4pm gôuter so I'm not keen at all to let Aelig have all these sweet stuffs. Now I wonder if we should listen to the PD, she might be underweight just because she is half Asian!

4 comments:

I think you are right that asian or part-asian kids are often thinner than standards weight charts tells us.It was the case of my wife until she hit 15 and it is the case of our first born which have been standing steadily on the low side of the weight graph since she was born while having slightly above average height and being otherwise perfectly healthy (her weight for her 3 first years).

My advice would be to refrain from being too much concerned with her weight as long as it doesn't seem to impact her health.

I think you're right too. Don't worry too much about her weight - as long as she seems happy and alert and has a steady weight gain I think. My two (also half Asian) have always been under weight (just under the lowest weight graph) even though they had a steady weight gain and they're fine. Seems odd that the PD would recommend chocolate cream and sweet stuff for a baby!

I agree with all of you, we've been trying to be strict enough with her food and avoid all the sweet and fat ... and now, all because of a stupid "normal weight" chart, despite the fact that she has no health problem whatsoever, she becomes some kind of a lab rat on which we're about to experiment all kinds of diets.

I've always been told to stay away from pediatricians and let her grow as she sees fit ... that advice has never been so true.